Craig Levein insists the young players that will feature against Celtic on Sunday will do so because they’ve been doing well, and not solely to protect the likely starters for the following week’s Scottish Cup final.

Both clubs will field what will essentially be scratch sides before facing each other at Hampden six days later.

Teenager Karamoko Dembele has been tipped to make his first team debut for the hosts, while the likes of Andy Irving, Alex Petkov and Connor Smith could feature for Hearts.

Levein however, insists it’s not just a case of picking a few youngsters and throwing them in – there’s some thought behind it.

“We’re going to have some younger players involved because, when I look at it, the benefits to them are obvious.

“There are older guys who will benefit from more training time and one less game. But the young players will benefit from playing in this atmosphere, so it makes sense.

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“Before I put a young player in, they have to be doing well – that’s the first thing. There’s no point, in a game like this, just throwing in a young player who is off form. So anyone who plays will be doing really well in the reserves.

Also, this is a little bit different as a game It will be competitive but I don’t think it will be toe-to-toe, like some of these games can be.”

Of course, a weekend out of action will ensure the more stablished players in Levein’s squad will have their chances of being fit for the cup final increased.

Peter Haring, Uche Ikpeazu and Arnaud Djoum are the three biggest doubts, but Levein is hopeful the work they have been and will be doing in the build up to the game will see them fit enough to play.

"I'm hopeful,” said Levein. “Arnaud’s Achilles has been bothering him but I'm hopeful of having all three. The fact that they're not involved in this game is nothing to do with where they are or their chances of playing in the final.

"If this was the cup final we'd have accelerated their programme to try and get them ready for this weekend but we didn't do that.

"The programme that their on has been steady increments in workload, which is much better than going from a low position to try and force them in to a match, which would've been the case had the cup final been this weekend.

"Are they going to be available? I can't say with absolute certainty that they're going to be available but we've given them the best chance possible."